White-winged Dove 161 



White- winged Dove. Melopelia asiatica. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 319 — Colorado Records — Berthond 77, p. 83 

 (Jlf. leucoptera) ; Cooke 97, pp. 73, 160, 203. 



Description. — Male — General colour above, including the middle tail- 

 feathers, olivo-brown ; top of the head and neck dull pinkish, an 

 irridescent patch on the sides of the neck and a stooly-blue sjwt below 

 the ear-coverts ; primaries dusky with a narrow white edging ; wing 

 with a broad white bar from the carpal joint to the longest coverts ; 

 nump and under-parts bluish ; outer tail-feathers slaty-blue, then 

 slaty-black, then squarely tipped with ashy-white ; iris jxu'ple, bill black, 

 legs pinkish-purple. Length 12-0 ; wing 6-5 ; tail 4-5 ; culmen and 

 tarsus -87. 



The female is similar, but smaller and duller coloured. 



Distribution.- — The southern United States from Florida, Texas, 

 New Mexico and Arizona, south to Costa Rica and the West Indies. 



The White-winged Dove is only of accidental occurrence in Colorado. 

 It is essentially a bird of the hot and dry lower sonoran and tropical 

 zones. Berthoud reported that he saw a flock of a dozen and killed one 

 or two in July, 1809, in Cub Creek in Jefferson co., at timber Une — a 

 very remarkable record. Cooke states that one was shot by Mr. 

 A. D. Baker in the Wet Mountain Valley in September, 1889. These 

 are the only known instances of its occurrence. 



ORDER ACCIPITRES. 



This order contains the Eagles, Hawks, Vultures, 

 American Vultures or Condors, and other diurnal birds 

 of prey. They are characterized as follows : Bill stout, 

 strong and hooked, with a soft-skinned cere at the base 

 within which open the nostrils ; lores generally naked 

 and bristly, never forming a regular rutf or facial disk 

 as in the Owls ; eyes not forwardly directed as in the 

 Owls, but looking out laterally as in other birds ; with 

 a few exceptions, wing with ten primaries, tail with 

 twelve rec trices ; legs generally rather short and stout, 

 with three toes in front and one behind, cleft or 

 only basally webbed, provided with strong curved 

 and sharp pointed claws, adapted for grasping their 

 prey. 



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